There have been a variety of protective collars which are cone-shaped that serve to limit the ability of an animal to lick parts of its body, to bite at stitches, or to tear off bandages. These collars are generally either difficult to fit onto and remove from the animal, or can be readily removed by the animal. This problem has been overcome by the present inventor with the collar described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,349,927. While collar of the '927 patent overcomes the problems of fitting and removing the collar, the cone-shaped collar extends away from the animal, somewhat impairing the mobility of the collared animal, and does not offer support for the neck.
The problem of impaired mobility of the animal associated with cone-shaped collars has been addressed by a variety of tubular collars which restrict the motion of the head of the collared animal, while not impairing mobility. U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,307,764 and 5,469,814 teach collars which restrict the motion of the head of an animal by wrapping the neck in a tubular collar which is made of a hard flexible material. The collar is configured such that the edges of the collar press on the neck as the animal attempts to move its head.
A head-engaging neck collar is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,628,283 which overcomes some of the comfort problems of earlier collars. This collar has a tubular shell of a plastic material and is configured with a curved edge to engage the head such that the animal cannot turn its head toward the body. To assure comfort, the tubular shell is preferably provided with an inside padding of expanded plastic. In the event that padding is not employed, then the edges of the collar can be provided with a bevel to increase comfort. While such a collar may be more comfortable to the animal, it limits not only the mobility of the head but also the jaw of the animal, making eating and drinking more difficult with the collar in place.
Additional restraining collars which have designs which should not interfere with the comfort of the animal wearing the collar are taught in Canadian Patent 1,191,748 and U.S. Pat. No. 4,719,876. These collars provide a pad which is encased to form a neck restraint when applied to the neck of an animal. These collars employ hook-and-pile type fasteners attached to the end regions of the collars. Hook-and-pile type fasteners have been found problematic, since they tend to quickly become clogged with fur or other obstructions when worn by animals, and cease to be effective.
While the collars of the '748 and '876 patents can be effective in limiting the motion of the head of an animal, the pads are difficult to fabricate and, in many cases, may be removed by the animal insistently scratching at the collar.
Furthermore, for all of the collars discussed above, a variety of widths must be manufactured to provide the appropriate size for a particular animal, and these collars are not well suited to individual tailoring to meet the needs of a particular animal. The lack of the ability to readily modify a collar increases tooling costs and increases the inventory which must be maintained by an animal care provider. Also, as the level of comfort to the animal increases, the difficulty in cleaning the collar increases.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,697,328 does address the problem of providing a sizable collar and teaches that a polymer sheet collar can be trimmed to some extent to vary the length and diameter of the collar. However, it teaches that such trimming results in barbed edges and that care should be used to avoid contact of the barbed edges with the animal. Furthermore, there is no teaching that such a collar could be trimmed to avoid contact with sensitized regions of the neck.
Thus, there is a need for a simple, tubular-type collar which is comfortable, securable, trimmable, and effective in restraining the motion of the head of an animal, providing support and protection for the neck of the animal, and reducing the ability of the animal to lick or bite infected or injured regions of its body.